R2 arrested in Zapopan, Navy reports

Reporting and context

Mexican Navy personnel arrested Rafael “N,” alias R2, in Zapopan, Jalisco, on Sunday, according to El País México. Authorities identify him as a leader of Los Rs, a Jalisco New Generation Cartel cell operating in Jalisco and Michoacán, and allege that he is linked to the killing of former Uruapan mayor Carlos Manzo.

R2 and 19 other people were detained in the operation. Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said information shared by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and work by Mexico’s National Intelligence Center helped locate him. He described the information about the operation as preliminary.

El País México reported that R2 had an outstanding arrest warrant for aggravated homicide issued by the First Criminal Court in Apatzingán, Michoacán, and another warrant for extradition to the United States. The Navy said its personnel came under armed attack during the intervention. Both the suspect and a Navy member were wounded and received medical care.

Authorities associate Los Rs with extortion, drug trafficking, homicide, unlawful detention, kidnapping and attacks against security forces. Business owners and avocado growers are among its alleged extortion victims, placing the cell’s reported activities within the pressure criminal groups exert on Michoacán’s avocado industry.

The report places the arrest after the July 30 capture in Atotonilco of Ramón Álvarez Ayala, alias R1, another alleged Los Rs leader. El País said authorities also linked R1 to extortion of avocado growers and to Manzo’s killing. It reported that he had previously been arrested in 2012 and released by a judge in 2022 after a decade in prison.

Source: El País México.